Thurian
by Magnolia E. Shepherd
Summary: What if The worlds last stand against the Kaiju was in San Francisco? What if that's where Raleigh Becket ended up? Small changes in circumstances can mean massive changes in the future. And what if Eloise Carroll, the worlds youngest Jeager pilot, met him there?
1. Chapter 1

I have heard about the monsters. I have seen them on the news. Some people say they are Demons. Some say they are gods. Most know that they are aliens. There's evidence. A portal; rift opened up in the fabric of space, or more likely, was blown open, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. One year after it opened, when the scientists weren't as frantic as before, the first monster came through. They called it a kaiju.

Now is four years after that, and I'm looking at one. Like a cross between a dinosaur, a fish and an elephant. Only, this dinosaur-fish-elephant towers more than a hundred meters above me. The streets of my city, Melbourne, are filled with screams and roars and the infinite destruction of skyscrapers, made look small by this enormous thing.

All anyone can do is run. So they do. They stumble and crawl and swarm over cars and other people like ants over rocks. Everyone is running in a straight line down the wide street. I yell for my friend, Lizzy who was with me before the sirens rang. I won't find her. How could I possibly find her in this? So I run, but I still shout her name.

But everyone is running in the wrong direction. The kaiju will take the path of least resistance. That is the way that the crowd's headed. But they will never out run it.

'Stop! Get out of the street! Hey!' I scream, but nobody hears me. Or at least, they don't care. I'm lucky. Fear makes me see clearly, but with these people it's just clouding their judgement. I keep screaming, until my voice is no more than a croak. I can't do anything more to help.

I dive off into an alleyway perpendicular to the street, hoping that Lizzy is doing the same. I run again through these streets and lanes that I know so well, now almost completely devoid of people who are escaping in the wrong direction.

When my breath starts to leave me, I spot a rusted fire escape, with a gum tree beside it. I climb the tree and then the fire escape. The roof is high enough for me to see the kaiju.

Fighter jets and helicopters swarm around it. They launch missiles, bullets, grenades. Most of the projectiles are heading into the things abdomen. But I can see that is strategy isn't working. The kaiju is armoured. I don't know if they can see this from up close. Heavy grey skin covers the whole creature, but the plates can be seen moving underneath.

I chew nervously on my knuckle. They're doing it wrong; they can't keep going like this. They'll use everything they have before the kaiju dies. Meanwhile, buildings are destroyed and aircraft are plucked from the sky, before being thrown to the ground. It's been twenty minutes since I first heard the noises. I wonder how many people have died in that time.

The sound of a helicopter comes from above me. It's damaged, fuel or oil spewing out the side of a hole in the body. Some splatters on my face, and I hastily wipe it off. They're landing on the helipad behind me, and my long brown hair whips around my face.

When it touches the ground, or should I say, roof, eight men and three women stream out of the door. They look at me for a moment, but I doubt that they're surprised. After they yell at each other for a moment a really young looking soldier comes over to me.

'Are you alright?' he asks.

I nod. 'Yeah I'm fine' I point to the kaiju. 'They need to aim for the eyes. There are plates of armour under its skin and so long as they're shooting at it like that nothing is going to happen. Look at it.' I say. The young soldier stares at it for a moment when a terrible realization widens his eyes.

'Lieutenant!' he yells running over to the group. He tells them what I told him. I look back to the kaiju. It keeps moving forward down the street. Now I can see it grabbing handfuls of people its arms, crushing them, and tossing them behind itself. Its second set of arms swats aircraft away like they were flies.

From the group of panicky soldiers a middle aged looking woman suddenly appears beside me.

'I've just sent the message out.' She says. I see the swarm of aircraft Shift upward and their fire move towards its head. Its eyes. The thing stops roaring and starts screaming. It stops moving forward. It's not dead yet, but it's immediately looking a lot worse for wear.

'My name is Lieutenant Billie Coleman.' She says.

'Eloise Carroll.' I say. We shake hands, but my eyes don't leave the kaiju.

The monster suddenly stumbles and falls. Its head is gushing with green blood and its eyes are pulp. It's dead. But a minute later a plume of it's foul blood rises into the sky, and the sounds of destruction cease. The shockwave hits us with a rank smell and cloud of dust. Now all there is to see is the path of ruin it's carved through my home.

'There's never been kaiju with armour before, has there?' I ask.

'No. At least not that I've heard of.' She says. 'If it weren't for you we wouldn't have stopped it.'

'You would have noticed it eventually.' I say, deflecting her complement with ease. Lieutenant Coleman smiles sadly.

'And while we were figuring that out a thousand more people would be dead.' A thousand more. How many thousands are already dead? My family are away in Sydney, so they're fine. But what about Lizzy? I shake my head. I can't think about that, not now.

'I did what anybody would have done.' I say. Lieutenant Coleman does that sad smile again and looks over to a neighbouring rooftop.

'Really?' she says. 'Look over there.' She points across to an overweight man bent over his camera phone. He's watching back what he had filmed before. I scan over the skyline and see half a dozen others doing the same thing.

'Jesus Christ.' I say.

'You'd think they wouldn't be thinking about how they should film it and more about how so many people are now-' she says. Her voice is bitter. 'Sorry. I shouldn't say that. Not yet. If only we'd had a Jaeger.'

Jaeger. A massive robot that looks like something out of The Transformers, built to kill the kaiju. Two pilots control it, connecting the robot to their brains so that it's easier and more effective to control. The pilots are as legendary as the jaegers. They are the only real way to kill the kaiju before so much damage is done. Australia only ever had one, and it's not here. We've never been attacked before. We thought we were safe.

We stare across the scene of devastation for a minute. I can sense the rest of the helicopter's crew standing behind us, doing the same. The young soldier from before steps up to my side.

'How old are you?' he asks.

'Fourteen.'

He lets his breath out in a disbelieving whistle. 'Well, prepare for your face on the news kid, because I'm putting it up there.'

'But I don't want-'

'It's not a matter of want anymore. You saved lives. More than we could have alone.'

I sigh and turn. I climb down the fire escape and the gum tree, and walk back towards the main street. They shout after me; tell me to come back. But those bodies aren't going to clear themselves.


	2. Chapter 2

I sling my duffle bag over my shoulder. The cargo plane trip to the San Francisco base was long, and I didn't exactly sleep, although two others did. I suppose it wasn't their first long haul flight. Though I can't imagine ever being able to fall asleep to that racket. It was a group of fourteen Australians. We're all being shipped over to international bases as soon as we're able to fight.

At nineteen I'm the youngest person ever to graduate as a Jaeger pilot. Lizzy graduated with me, but she's a few months older. What was that they said about pilots? The stronger the bond, the easier it is for the minds to connect, with the Jaeger and each other. I can't think of anyone I love more than Lizzy. Well, my family, but they're dead now. No prizes to guess what killed them.

It was amazing to have found each other alive again. But our joy was brief. I was swept up into the world's media for a month. So many people asked for interviews. No. No no no no no. They gave me a medal for bravery. I got young Australian of the year. Then they forgot. They picked up on me again when my family was killed by a kaiju in Hobart, but nobody asked for an interview then. Nobody cared very much about it. Just another four people dead, in an ever rising death toll. Since then the world has truly fallen to ruin.

When we land Lizzy and I stumble out of the aircraft. I run a hand through my short hair, and look at the bleak airfield that surrounds me. My legs are jelly and I have been awake for near forty eight hours. We're both dead on our feet. But before they let us retreat to our rooms, we have to report to the command level. God knows why that can't wait until after we've had a nap.

Lizzy's blond curls blow into my face as we trudge across the airfield and into the base. Outside it's all concrete and puddles and grey. It's pretty much the same inside. A man covered in black grease and holding a spanner in his left hand leads us up stairs, along corridors and through doors. After a while points at the first glass door I've seen in this place, and leaves, without so much as a, 'toodle loo. Command is that way. Good luck.'

I throw Lizzy a sideways glance and she pulls a very serious face. Despite our fatigue, we laugh at each other, and walk through the door.

The room is filled with old glass screens and some holograms. Sometimes I recognise a program that I saw in training, but not very often. This I not where I belong. There is so much stuff in the room and so much important looking activity. I'm lost in here. I look to Lizzy again. She doesn't have any more idea of what's going on than I do. So we stand awkwardly by the door, waiting for someone to tell us what the hell we are supposed to be doing.

Suddenly I see a familiar face in the chaos, and she sees me. Lieutenant Coleman walks over to the pair of us. Her hair has begun to grey, and her face has a few more lines in it, but her bright eyes make it seem as nothing could ever age her.

'The lieutenant is still alive.' I say disbelievingly. She laughs.

'Captain now. And here you will be expected to treat me as such.'

I straighten up. 'Apologies, Captain. '

'No worries. God, I can't believe what you've done! Youngest ever. We all knew that you'd amount to something, that day on the roof. And your score was above average I hear?'

'Ninety eight percent.' I say. Turns out I had a real knack for holding my own in a fight, along with overall strategy. Lizzy got ninety four percent; a score only dampened her backtalk to an officer. The officer was a dickhead, though. He deserved it.

'Bloody brilliant.' she says. Then she turns to Lizzy, acknowledging her for the first time. 'I'm Captain Billie Coleman. Second in command on this base to General Mathews. Sorry, I haven't seen Eloise in five years, other than the news. You are?'

'I'm Li-, I mean, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Stohl. We're partners, in case you somehow didn't guess that.' She says. Not all cadets arrive at the base with partners, but those of us who do have an advantage, and I wouldn't pilot with anybody else. I wince slightly. I know Captain Coleman won't reprimand her for it, but that answer was ever so slightly disrespectful. I'll rein her in later.

'And your score?'

'Ninety four percent, Captain. I got a reprimand from an officer. If it hadn't been for that I would have the same score as her.' She says, nodding her head at me. Captain Coleman smiles. She finds Lizzy's attitude entertaining. Lizzy smiles back, as if part of some inside joke. Maybe this is the beginning of just that.

'Well, I'll take you to the general to get a quick brief and the keys to your rooms. Follow me.' She waves us after her and we follow through the dauntingly purposeful room. Soon we come to the front of the room where the general stands. He wears his coat and trousers, but his coat is unbuttoned and his hair messy. I like the look of him.

Captain Coleman introduced Lizzy and I as the youngest graduated pilots the world has seen. The General looks at us like I imagine he would any other new recruits. Not with the usual awe and amazement that Lizzy and I usually get. It's kind of nice really.

'Impressive feat, completing the course in two years, cadets. I hope it doesn't mean you missed anything too important. I have found that scores aren't everything when you go up in a real Jaeger, against a real kaiju. Never the less, good luck to you both.  
'Now, over the next week you will be training against the other cadets so we can see who would be best to pilot our class five jaegers. There are three places available and forty cadets. You will receive details of the times on the digital dairies in your rooms.'

He hands us each a key on a leather thong.

'You're next door neighbours. Now, get out of here, and for god's sake take a nap before dinner. There's a pile of maps on the table by the door. Is everything understood?'

'Yes sir.' We say in unison. He nods at us, and we are dismissed.

Lizzie has excellent map reading skills, so as far as it is to our rooms, it takes a comparably shot time to get there. Outside our rooms we jump up and down in each other's arms for a while, laughing and full of giddy, girly excitement that we're finally here. We get some weird looks from passersby, but Lizzy blows raspberries at them. Then we disappear into our rooms.

The room is small. There's a bed, some storage space. Two rusty pipes run down the wall by the bed. Sunk into the wall next to the door is a small touch screen, which is the electronic diary. I set an alarm on it to wake me before dinner, before collapsing onto the bed. I don't think to take my heavy boots off before I'm fast asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The alarm wakes me, and I reluctantly get up to wake Lizzy. We both look hilariously dishevelled, and I know that I am still very, very tired. As the corridor fills with people we sit on the steps to Lizzy's room, each with a hairbrush in hand hacking away at Lizzy's hair. We're still there when the stream of people begins to thin.

From the door opposite us a guy with fair hair steps out and starts up the corridor. I guess that he's in his early twenties. He's gorgeous, but a bit of a mess. He looks as exhausted as I feel, his hair is all over the place, and his pilots shirt (black, with two gold bars on the shoulder), is crumpled. I feel Lizzie dig an elbow into my ribs.

'Dibs on the Blondie.' She says, and I laugh. The guy glances at us for a second, before walking off. I throw my hairbrush into her room. She does the same and we start walking up the corridor in the same direction everyone else.

'I thought you were saving yourself for your boyfriend.' I say.

'Pah, you know I don't care about him. He was just hot, fun, and a good kisser.'

'Good at anything else?' I ask, knowing the answer.

'Shut up.' She says, and elbows me again. Lizzy is very different from me like that. She's had heaps of boyfriends, reeling them in annually using her good looks and charm. Her long, wild blond hair, tall thin frame and exotic amber eyes made it easy for her. She has a waist and boobs and the sort of figure models dream of having. She's the pretty one of the two of us.

Me? I'm medium height, with pale skin. It would turn honey coloured in the summer, but going to the beach is not an option anymore. I have eyes that are a green and gold hazel. I cut my dark brown hair short, because it's practical. With my lack of curves and frame that I would otherwise describe as lean, I look a bit like a boy. That's okay though. Flirting tires me.

'Whatever. Just remember that dallying with the opposite sex is against the rules here.' I say. 'So, did you look at the map or something?' I ask, changing the subject to something that matters at the moment. I am very hungry.

'Nope, I'm just following the crowd.' She says. I shrug. Lizzy's usually right in situations like these.

The dining hall is massive. It's filled with people from every profession on the base. Engineers, pilots, cadets, officers, air traffic controllers, medics, scientists, soldiers, and a million and six others that I can't name. And this must only be the meal for the day shift. There are long metal tables that I imagine are meant to seat twelve, but about sixteen are crammed onto each. So many people in one room.

There are two cafeteria lines that people are moving along, sloping food onto metal dinner trays. I click my fingers in front of Lizzy's nose to get her attention, and drag her towards the line where I see most people. I assume the other one is for officers or higher ranking people; otherwise it would have a longer line.

Once we have lined up and served ourselves an assortment of sloppy stuff, we look over the tables.

'Look, that one's empty.' Lizzy says, pointing to the far corner. Her hope is my suspicion.

'There must be a pretty good reason no one's sitting there Lizzy.' I say. I spot a table filled with cadets. I know this because they are all aged in their early twenties, and are wearing their navy blue shirts with sleeves rolled up and hems untucked. 'There.' I say, pointing to the table. Lizzy nods and we squeeze onto the end of a bench.

We get a few weird looks from the other cadets, but that's because we don't fit the criteria. We're too young. After a while of ignoring us, one of the younger guys on the table pipes up.

'Why aren't you sitting on the table over there?' he asks in a sugar sweet voice. He has an American accent. I let Lizzy handle this one.

'Why aren't you?' she asks, with equal innocence.

The guy smiles. 'Touché. Why are you sitting here then?'

'You're all cadets, right?'

'Yes.' He says. Lizzy raises her eyebrows and inclines her head, encouraging him to use his brain. I see the very moment when he figures it out. 'Oh. Oh! It's you! We were told you'd be coming to the base this month.'

Lizzy holds out her hand. 'I'm Lizzy.'

The guy shakes her hand. 'Elizabeth Stohl, I know. I'm Dean. Congratulations.' He says. Oh, brilliant, they already know who we are. I cringe to myself. The other cadets at the table have now taken an interest in Lizzy. Especially the male ones. They are in awe, as per usual. I keep my head down in the hope that they won't notice me, eating my mush with intention. No such luck.

'And that means that you're Eloise Carroll.' Dean says, offering his hand. I finish my mouthful and shake it.

'Hi.' I say.

'So you're the youngest ever? And you saved Melbourne when you were fourteen.' He says, and shakes his head disbelievingly. The occupants of the table are now all staring at me and whispering to each other, along with some of the other tables. I can see that Rumours about Lizzy and I have been circulating for a while. Nobody knew how old I was in Australia; they all forgot about me ages ago.

I wince when he says _saved Melbourne_. I didn't. Melbourne was beyond saving. The damage had already been done.

'Seven thousand people died. A million were wounded. Melbourne wasn't saved.' I say. Dean looks disappointed at my reaction. Boo hoo.

'But, you noticed the armour. That was the first category two kaiju ever.' Says a man at the other end of the table. I don't feel like responding. Luck was the only reason I spotted the armour that day. And someone on Captain Coleman's crew would have noticed. I didn't come here to be reminded of everything I had already lost. I shove some mash potato into my mouth.

'Ignore her. She's hostile, modest and very good at lots of things. It's an annoying combination.' Lizzy says, lying but saving me from having to join the conversation. I look and see lots of people at surrounding tables have completely turned their bodies towards me to get a better look. One by one I glare at them. _What are you looking at?_ They turn away, embarrassed.

I look over and do the same thing to the rest of the people staring. They turn away at lightning speed. Subtle. Except for one. At a table of what I assume to be pilots is the guy from across the hall. He was watching me too. But when I glare at him he doesn't snap his gaze away. He turns slowly back to his food.

I shove potato in my mouth again. Then, I leave the table, dump my tray on a table by the kitchen door and get the hell out of there.

I am not here to talk about my past.

I am not here to be marvelled at.

I am not here to be nice.

I am here to pilot a class five Jaeger with my partner, and kill those son-of-a-bitch kaiju.


	4. Chapter 4

It was twelve hours of sleeping for Lizzy and I before now. We're about to go to our first training session, where we'll be assessed and compared with the other cadets.

I feel good. Awake, alert, strong. I'll need those things today. Lizzy and I will be fighting with other partners in kendo or hand to hand combat. We'll also be sparring with each other. The more we match each other's skill, the more compatible we are when piloting a Jaeger. It makes drifting easier. Drifting is what the neural connection is called. When you enter the drift, you see each other's memories. After that, you attack the same way; fight and think as one.

Some partners pretend that they have equal skill, but you can see it when they do. And it's not getting them any brownie points from the assessors.

I have a light lunch. I don't want anyone to hit me in the stomach and force my food back out into the open, partially digested. When we get to the correct room we join the line behind an Asian looking woman with awesome acid green sections in her hair. The line has all forty cadets in it, and blocks my view of the ring. But I can hear the clacking of staffs that I now associate with kendo.

'Um hi.' I say to the woman in front of me. 'It's our first training session and I was wondering if you could tell us what we're doing.'

'Kendo. Right now you're going up against other cadets. Fight the one that's in the ring. First to four points wins. If you win, you stay in the ring. If you lose, you go to the back of the line.' She explains, before turning back around. She's not being very hospitable. Fair enough. We can all make friends in the hallways and dining hall, but the ring is where you have no friends and no sympathy.

The line slowly moves forward and I see a cadet send people to the back of the line one by one. The score is always four nil. He has inky black hair that is plastered to his forehead with sweat.

'I changed my mind.' Says Lizzy. 'Dibs on that one.' She inclines her head toward the man. He sends another cadet to the back of the line.

'If you insist.' I say. 'But look at his face; don't you think he looks kinda...bloodthirsty?' I do. Every time he scores he licks his lips, and occasionally when he hits his opponent (which is banned, so it might be an accident, but I don't think it is.) he sort of grins. Or is it a grimace? I can't tell. This guy has what Lizzy might call, _bad vibes_, or, _some creepy voodoo about him_.

'Meh.' She says, which translates to _yes, you're probably right_ in Lizzy language.

Sooner than I realise I'm watching the Asian woman being pummelled by the cadet. Before every fight they call the names of the opponents, and I lean that the Asian woman is called Koemi, and the unhinged looking cadet is Silvan. I can tell that Koemi is an excellent fighter, but she goes down four nil, just like the rest.

Then it's my turn. Lizzy pats my back for luck. I step into the ring; where the floor is dropped by two steps; and pick up the red staff. Opposite the line are three officials. Captain Coleman and two others; one on her left, and one on her right. The official on Coleman's left asks for our names. Silvan speaks first.

'Silvan Bergfalk.' He says.

'Eloise Carroll.' I say. The line may be behind me, but I can practically see the cadets leaning and stretching to get a better view. Captain Coleman looks concerned, but when she meets my eye she composes herself. I take three deep breaths and focus. I raise my staff.

Silvan waves his staff around for a while, probably to intimidate me. I hold his gaze and grip my staff firm. He will attack first, and I will be ready.

He attacks. It's a barrage of accurate and incredibly fast jabs and sweeps. I evade, block, deflect, but I need to hold off from attacking for a moment, find patterns in his assault. There! He brings his staff down towards my head, and tries to score there twice more. Then he catapults the staff at my left side. I evade and back off for a moment, and we circle one another. I smile to myself. I now have an inkling of his strategy. Damn, I was made to do this.

I launch an attack of my own, matching his speed and accuracy, but not revealing any of my own. Jab, jab, deflect, sweep, block, sweep, sweep, sweep. Hooks my leg with his staff and I fall to the ground. He licks his lips. He thinks he's got me covered. _Thinks._

I now reveal how fast I really am. I roll up onto one knee and stop my staff half an inch away from his neck.

'One nil to Carroll.' Says Captain Coleman. I feel a restraining tension that I didn't realize was there leave my body. I stand up and raise my staff. He attacks first.

The onslaught is faster this time. It seems that he was holding back before too. But I can keep up. It's a medley of give and take, back and forth. I attack, he counters, and then I counter his counter. We're both so precise it feels like a dance. With every failed attack Silvan's face grows more contorted.

A splinter from the old floor drives itself into my foot. It hurts a lot, and for a millisecond I loose my focus. It's long enough. Silvan swings his staff and stops an inch from my nose.

'One all.' Says the Captain. I put up my hand and take a moment to pull the splinter out of my foot. It's about three centimetres long, and went deep enough that at one end there is a spot of blood. I'm pretty sure there are still some little bits of wood in my foot, but that can wait until later.

'Do you want to continue?' asks Captain Coleman. In answer I put my foot back on the ground and raise my staff. Silvan glares at me. I smile. Nothing pisses off your enemies more than being nice to them.

He swings his staff down to my head and we start dancing again. After forty seconds I twist his staff out of his hand and score at his ribcage. Two one. He scores. Two all. I move faster than I've ever moved before. So fast it seems impossible, and I score. Three two.

His face changes. His rage turns to calm resolve. My heart beats faster. This time he doesn't attack straight away. He circles for a while. Then, instead of launching an attack designed to score, he starts trying to figure me out. He hits at my side to see what I do. I evade, not letting myself do what I would if I was really in danger. Besides, I have the advantage, and he knows it.

Final he starts to really attack. He hasn't learnt as much as he would have liked to. We move faster and faster and faster again. The staffs whistle as they cut through the air and crack against each other with deafening noise.

Silvan cheats. He sweeps my foot out from under me using his own, and I fall to the floor. I try to roll out, but he's stepping on my ankle, and I can't. He attacks again and again, and all I can do is block. I feel his foot come off my ankle, and his staff crashes down on top of my head. I feel pain. It all goes black.


	5. Chapter 5

I come to. I'm still in the ring, but there is now a circle of people around me. Lizzy has lost her cool demeanour and is slapping my chin. Everything's foggy around the edges though, and it sounds sort of like I'm wearing earmuffs. And my head really hurts. Warmth flows out of my hair and down my face. I swallow the lump in my throat when I realize what it is.

I raise a hand and blink a couple of times.

'I'm alright, I'm fine.' I say, pushing myself into a sitting position, then standing, leaning heavily on Lizzy.

'Are you sure?' someone asks. It's Dean.

'Yeah I'm-' I start, but my legs fail me, and poor Dean has to hold me up by my armpits. I gasp and inhale some of the blood that's run down may face. Oh god. I cough, spraying Lizzy with blood and saliva.

'Just move her!' someone snaps, and I'm dragged across the room and deposited in a chair. Someone presses a towel to where the skin has split just behind my hairline. I grab it off them and wipe my face with it, then hold where it was before. Lizzie wipes my face again with what I assume is damp toilet paper. I'm not really a squeamish person, but the overwhelming smell of blood is nauseating.

Lizzie waves her hand in front of my face. 'Where are you?' she asks. 'What's your name? Are you an alien?'

I laugh at her. 'I'm in the San Fran kaiju defence base, my name is Eloise Felicity Richardson, and as far as I know, I am not an alien.' I say. I never wake up disoriented, or think I'm awake when I'm dreaming. Lizzy looks very relieved. I lean around her head and analyse the scene around me.

Silvan is being walked out of the room by the two officers. People in the line have dispersed. Captain Coleman is yelling for order. People have already started to mop up the trail of blood I've left. Captain Coleman glances at me, and walks over.

'Can you take her to the infirmary?' she asks Lizzy.

Lizzy bites her lip. 'Sorry, I don't know where it is yet.'

The captain nods, and turns to Dean, who's hovering next to Lizzy. 'You know where it is?'

'Yes ma'am.'

'Good. Keep a hand on her the whole way.' She starts, 'make sure you catch her if she faints or anything.'

'I'm fine!' I insist. The captain looks at me sceptically.

'I'm sure you are,Carroll.'

And with that I'm dragged off by Lizzy and dean to the infirmary. It's not a very long walk. Inside the medic cleans my cut and asks me a series of obvious questions to see if I had a bad concussion, and I dig the remaining splinters out of my foot. The nurse reassures me by saying that head wounds bleed a lot while she's stitching up my head. After the nurse leaves Lizzy lectures me on how good looks can be deceiving. I very nearly slap her.

'Ok enough!' I say when her yapping becomes too much. I turn to Dean. 'Who the hell is Psycho-Silvan?' I grown. Judging by the way Lizzy and I were greeted at dinner the other night, this is a gossipy place.

'Oh, Silvan? Nobody knows much. Only that he's seriously good in training.' Dean says. 'Whenever he gets a really good fighter as an opponent, he hits them. Not hard or anything. It's like he's reminding them not to challenge him or something.'

I nod. 'Every time I scored he got all... angry. But he didn't hit me before this.' I say, pointing to my head.

'Yes he did.' Says Lizzy. Her brow furrows. 'Right after you scored for the first time.'

Now I'm confused. 'But I didn't feel anything. And if he had hit me, he would have scored.' I protest.

'No, he hit you in the thigh. You seriously didn't notice?' asks Lizzy. She looks to Dean for confirmation, who nods his head hastily. I wonder why he's still here.

I shake my head. 'Nope.' I run my hands along the top of my legs and wince when I press into the middle of my left thigh. 'Although, now that you mention it...' I trail off. Lizzy lets her breath out in a huff and pops her lips.

'Okay, enough about being hit.' I say, and turn to Dean. 'So Silvan's the best?'

Dean shrugs. 'Basically. Although, you gave him a good run for his money. '

Something I probably won't be doing again too soon. I can only imagine how officers and Captain Coleman are going to punish him for this.

'When does training end?' I ask. Lizzy looks at me disbelievingly.

'You're not serious.'

'I'm always serious.' I say.

'In an hour.' Dean says. Lizzy gives him a death stare. Dean opens his mouth, but doesn't say anything. He looks like a fish.

'But your head! Look at it!' Lizzy insists, prodding the bandage encircling my cranium. 'You can't go back! Tell her, Dean.'

Dean put his hands up. 'I- I don't think... Lizzy's right, Eloise. You can't go back,' he nods. Probably to restore confidence in himself, more than anything else.

The nurse pokes her grey head around a curtain toward the back of the room.

'You guys should clear out before you catch something nasty.' She says with the sort of tone that you don't argue with if you have half a brain.

'You are crazy.' Lizzy says.

I stand up and start towards the door. 'Maybe.' Which means, _yes,_ _you're probably right_, in Eloise language.


End file.
